I LOVE the way I have been teaching math for the past 2 years. I sort of fell into it. The school I was teaching at was closing and I was asked to go back to teaching elementary instead of middle school science. EEEkkkk was my first thought. I was going from teaching 1 subject all day long, back to teaching all the subjects. I did a lot of remembering back to my student teaching days (and even my own experiences in elementary) and regular old-fashioned research on the computer and I decided to use the workshop model for everything I teach.

The pocket charts are wonderful for guided math groups (I change them often depending on the students knowledge levels).

Here is how Math Workshop is set up in my classroom:First: 10 minute mini-lesson based on your learning target(s).Second: Rotations- time last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per rotationThird: 5 to 10 minutes. Wrap-up closing

In the next post I'll start explaining how I use the three-steps in Math Workshop and how/why I level students!

Wow! We have worked super hard this week on something new for my classroom!

We grouped ALL Math Common Core standards into thematic units. This will help show how concepts progress from one year to the next! We are using these units to create a leveling system so I can assess my students on the concepts! Click here to go to our TpT store, or click on any of the images!

How do I use Vocabulary Dice? I use them ALL the time in my classroom. Whenever we have a unit to study we use the dice to reinforce our words. We use them with our K.I.M. Vocabulary Folders (coming soon). We just finished up a unit on food chains before summer break. In our vocabulary folders we had words like predator, prey, herbivore and carnivore (to just name a few). As part of our test review the students had a blast rolling the dice and completing the activities. I have used it with many grade levels; from 3rd to 8th!